This is Niche Culture. In this column, we regularly cover anime, geek culture, and things related to video games. Please leave feedback and let us know if there’s something you want us to cover!

Tetsuya Nomura is a legendary game designer, known for his work as far back as Final Fantasy V (however he was debugger on Final Fantasy IV). He became a worldwide name in gaming from his work on Final Fantasy VII, and even moreso later with Kingdom Hearts.

One thing that became more prominent in his designs as his career developed is his use, or sometimes overuse, of belts and zippers with his character designs.

Sometimes they make sense, other times it’s completely ridiculous and just downright silly. Now, we’ve finally learned why he’s obsessed with the things.

“That was my preference back when I first designed the characters, so 15 years ago,” Nomura said in an interview with Mirror.co.uk.

“At that time, people teased me about zippers and belts and whatnot and I’m the type of person if somebody eggs me on I’m gonna do it more! Nowadays, I’m not as conscious about adding them in,” he noted.

He went on to say that he’ll actively fight against people telling him not to do something, thus explaining why he’s just added more belts and zippers to his designs as time went on:

“I’m not the type of person that would shrink down when people tease me about it,” Nomura said.

“I’m gonna fight back! I’m gonna go back at it and do it more. So, if people egg me on saying ‘oh, Kingdom Hearts III is delayed’ well, I might even delay it further! (laughs)”

His next games, Kingdom Hearts III and the Final Fantasy VII Remake, are both follow-ups to games that catapulted his name in the gaming industry. Perhaps we’ll see even more belts and zippers in those two games?